Despite vigilance on the part of utility companies to prevent unauthorized access to the interior portion of electric meters, such as by use of a seal or lock device, as, for example, the locking apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,319 issued to Haus, Jr. et al, it has been learned through sad experience that some utility customers have been persistent enough to gain access to the meter's internal mechanism, and they have surreptitiously repositioned the register pointers. Their actions cause the electric meter to falsely indicate a lower energy consumption and demand, and the utility company would accordingly bill the customer for the lower amount indicated.
In the past, register pointers of electric meters have been friction fitted to their respective shafts, because this practice permitted utility meter shops to quickly reset a register pointer reading to the zero-position by physically moving the pointer against its frictional grip with respect to the shaft, rather than use the time-consuming technique of mechanically resetting the pointers through operation of the register gear train mechanism. Of course, utility customers involved in meter tampering have learned how to reposition the pointers, and they have been resorting to that method so as to indicate a false reading of energy usage.
It has been determined that the simplest way to cheat the utility company is to turn back the register pointers. This method is also least likely to be detected. Whenever, for example, an electric meter has not been sealed, or the seal has been broken, a utility customer can then reset the register pointer by turning the pointer on its shaft against the friction-tight fit. The utility company either remains ignorant of this fact or the company is unable to prove that any cheating has occurred.
Breakaway meter pointers and shafts of the present invention can substantially stop this type of theft.